Alexander Westcott inherited a dilapidated estate, and even though he had considered recently searching for love and getting married, he realized he must wed a rich woman to revive his property and all the people who rely on him under the establishment. Wren Heyden believed no man would marry her for any reason besides financial gain because of a purple birthmark that covered the left side of her face. Since she was a wealthy heiress, she decided to purchase a husband, for she longed to be a wife and mother, not just a successful businesswoman. Alexander Westcott happened to make her shortlist of potential husbands; he found her offer of matrimony strange and offensive and refused to marry for money alone - there must be something else between them, a liking, respect, possibly an affection. Alex and Wren's characters and their arrangement captured my attention. The story, however, had difficulty holding it. Their conversations often repeated- what one person said replayed in the other person's thoughts, and often, it could be whole paragraphs of previously read material. Too many additional characters clouded the mix, and I kept thinking: this isn't your story, why do I have to read pages and pages about you? One character's entrance added some comedy, that was Harry Wescott returning delirious from the Peninsula. Another scene I enjoyed was when Alex stood up for Wren against her mother's henchmen. I was itching for a fight, but all they could do was dangle. I could have enjoyed this book much more with fewer characters and fewer pages.